Autopopulate checkout fields

We are currently working on a new feature where the billing and shipping fields on the checkout page will be auto-populated using a customer's PayPal or Apple Pay account if the fields do not already have data present.

The issue we face is WooCommerce renders the payment gateways toward the end of the checkout page instead of at the beginning. It's possible that the customer may enter all the billing and shipping information before they choose PayPal as their payment option; thus negating the convenience of having those fields auto-populate.

We are looking for suggestions on how best to communicate to customer's that those fields can be populated if they use PayPal or Apple Pay.

I would personally love for customers to be able to choose the payment option at the top of the page first ESPECIALLY IF doing so would cause the billing/shipping fields to auto-populate. It doesn't even make sense to me that billing/shipping comes before your payment selection and I don't think that's a standard practice.

Does Payment Plugins has enough control to be able to change the flow or is it a WooC or customized code kind of thing? In other words, are you limited to just putting an Apple Pay & Paypal button at the top of Checkout?

I must say I like the logic behind both solutions, although the big question is what are the limitations or as you said, can the plugin customise the checkout info order. It would be cool if both of these could be implemented, so we can all test what works better and in what situations.

Also, in option where using an Apple Pay/PayPal button on top, it might be cool to be able to add a customised note, so that we have an option to further clarify. I.e.:

Autofill with PayPal/Apple Pay or enter your information below if you will pay with your credit/debt card.

When exactly does the auto-prepopulate happen?. I have no problem adding a note at the top of our checkout page but it's not the best possible solution. If you look at my screenshots, the SHOP | CART | Checkout is already something we added to our checkout page (outside of the checkout portion provided by WooC).

I'd love to know the answer about the customization, I don't see a way for that to happen in the settings right now. Is this something to take up with WooC? Can Paym Plug. do it?

Hi Curtis, while I like your idea and wish WooCommerce followed that flow, it is more proper that the theme you use makes those changes. It is possible to re-arrange the checkout elements in the order you have shown, but I think for our plugin to do that would be exceeding its purpose. I would definitely raise that with WooCommerce though.

The auto-populate would occur as soon as the customer has finished the PayPal Checkout flow or Apple Pay flow.

Perhaps the answer is to not even offer those options at the top of the checkout page but include Apple Pay on the cart page. PayPal is now offered on the cart page since version 2.6.40. These payment options provide enough information to skip the Checkout page entirely. Most sites follow the flow of Item > Cart > Checkout anyway so it may be redundant including it on the checkout page.

"Auto population of checkout fields using PayPal and Apple Pay is almost here! Soon your customers can have all their billing and shipping fields auto-populate using information from their Apple or PayPal account."

I didn't mean "when" as in what part of the flow, I meant when does the feature become live?

I like the idea of Apple Pay on the cart page for sure, especially since we cater to Apple users. I'm on version 2.6.16??, so I've never seen Paypal offered on the cart page. But yes, skipping the checkout page make sense if you're using Paypal or Apple Pay.

Guess I need to update or go back and look at settings as I didn't know these were options. Plus, kind of changes the dialogue of this thread a bit.

The cart option would be cool, but I've noticed that sometimes when the system was unable to geolocate the customer for whatever reason (private browsing, no cookies etc.) it will not be able to apply the appropriate tax on the cart stage, resulting in lower purchase price. That is why we have PayPal disabled on the cart stage.

Also, due to our courier service we need to ask for phone info, but if someone checks out at cart and doesn't have phone info in PayPal, it will complete the checkout process without that crucial information. I feel that this is where a custom note field might help out as well.

Marko Is that based on experience with prior plugins or our plugin with regard to tax? WC re-calculates all totals during checkout process to account for any billing or shipping address changes. That functionality is called from the PayPal cart integration.

That is my experience with your plugin from a week or so ago, but not on live site. I've tried running it on staging site and once or twice the payment went through without tax for some reason. We are using Price by Country plugin which helps to set the same price in and out of EU, so maybe that caused it but I can't be sure. I'll be sure to run a few tests over the weekend to see how it behaves.

I am now on 2.6.40 from the old subscription based PRO version. For the first time, I'm seeing PayPal on the bottom of the cart page. If clicking on Paypal, and completing that flow, returns you to the Checkout page with Billing/Shipping fields auto-populated, that's super great!

You say... "Perhaps the answer is to not even offer those options at the top of the checkout page but include Apple Pay on the cart page. PayPal is now offered on the cart page since version 2.6.40. These payment options provide enough information to skip the Checkout page entirely. Most sites follow the flow of Item > Cart > Checkout anyway so it may be redundant including it on the checkout page."

That's my vote, right above PayPal ha ha. Or at least the preference to chose which one is placed above the other.

You also say... "One option we are considering is to add the PayPal and Apple Pay buttons at the top of the page, like a banner."

In this scenario, you're referring to the Checkout page. I think this is inferior to the former option (1/2 of which is already implemented).

Paypal and Apple Pay on the cart page seems like a more streamlined flow with the least redundancy or entering of info that would normally be auto-populated upon payment selection... which I feel is what I experience in a lot of my shopping??

If you go with the cart option, maybe there's a way to distinguish the difference between current "Checkout" (which is essentially via a CC) and Paypal or Apple Pay. Maybe "Checkout using a Credit Card" | "Checkout with Paypal" | "Checkout with Apple Pay" but maybe there's limitations to this wording from the brands?

My eyes don't like seeing the credit card logos below Paypal logo on the cart page but I couldn't seem to customize this??

Looks like my PC no longer has Apple Pay showing as an option, nice improvement!